Differences in the concept of wellness and its materialisation in service offering: a multiple case study from Eastern Finland, Russian Karelia, and Lithuania

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the conceptions of wellness tourism among wellness enterprises, investigating how wellness tourism is materialised in their service offering. This multiple case study encompasses Eastern Finland, Russian Karelia, and Lithuania. First, the study indicates the main differences in the concept of wellness, proposing that regulation, history, traditions, and natural resources can impact the understanding of wellness. Second, the findings show that spas play a central role in wellness tourism, being used to offer added value and marketing strategies. Third, it discusses the merging of the line between purely wellness or medically oriented institutions. The study concludes with suggestions for businesses to focus on the unique destination-specific elements that can increase competitiveness and to take different customer segments into account when planning facilities and designing marketing strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Wellness tourism
• wellness concept
• wellness services
• wellness entrepreneurs
• wellness marketing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation under Grant [number 00210241]; Karelia CBC programme under Karelian Wellness project [project number: KA8022].

Notes on contributors

Daumantas Bočkus

Daumantas Bočkus is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, Lecturer and Junior Researcher at Klaipeda University, and also Lecturer at Lithuanian Business University of Applied Sciences. His research interests include wellness tourism development, destination marketing and competitiveness, tourist experience, entrepreneurship, and networking in tourism business. He has participated in the implementation of several international projects related to the sustainable tourism development of the Baltic Sea region.

Elisa Sulkinoja

Elisa Sulkinoja is a project researcher, M. Sc. (Econ) at the University of Eastern Finland. Her interest in research fields are wellness tourism, nature-based tourism, new service development in tourism and entrepreneurship, cooperation, and networks in tourism business.

Natalia Kolesnikova

Natalia Kolesnikova is a Candidate of Sciences, Associate Professor and Researcher at Department of Tourism, Institute of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism, Petrozavodsk State University (Russian Federation). She teaches Marketing and Management in Tourism, Sales in Tourism. Her main research interests are entrepreneurship and networking in tourism. She has participated in several international projects related to nature-based, rural, and wellness tourism development in crossborder regions as a researcher and expert.

Raija Komppula

Raija Komppula is a Professor of Marketing, especially Tourism Business, at the University of Eastern Finland, Business School. Her research interests include research on tourist experience, customer involvement in new service development in tourism, destination branding, market orientation, small business research and entrepreneurship, cooperation, and networks. She has conducted research on these topics especially in the context of nature based and rural tourism, and recently in wellbeing and social tourism. Professor Komppula has several positions of trust in tourism industry in Finland, and she is a member of AIEST, TRC (Tourist Research Center), and ISTO.